One thing about working downtown, right by the Legislature and the river valley, I have a lot of subject options 🙂 The other day day, part of my lunchtime photography stroll took me to the High Level Bridge. I decided to play around with shutter speed using full manual mode; usually I play around with aperture in the aperture priority mode. Although I was in the shade, it was a sunny day and I’d already set my ISO to 100. I set a higher f-stop (small aperture size) to go along with my slower shutter speed to avoid blowing out my shot while capturing motion.

I think this next one is pretty neat, with just a hint of the wheels left, almost ghost-like, with the U of A’s Biological Science’s building in the background.
1/10 sec at f/32, ISO 100, Sony a55 w/50mm macro

And one last full car blur.
1/10sec at f/32, ISO 100, Sony a55 w/50mm macro

A lot (not to be confused with an alot ) of photography sites, on the subject of getting better, tell you to have your camera with you as much as possible so you can whip it out whenever there’s a photographic opportunity. With this in mind, and a desire to improve my craft, I brought my camera to work the other week. It was a beautiful sunny day and after lunch was enjoyed outside on the grass, it was time to take pictures.

But a funny thing had happened. I found I didn’t WANT to.

After I had taken the time to bring my camera to work, carefully padded in my backpack for the bus ride, I sat there not quite sure what to do, not quite sure if I really wanted to. But it seemed like such a waste to not take a single shot – it was time for ‘fake it till you make it’.

I looked around.

A few meters away from the lunch spot was a beautiful flowering shrub, seemed like as good a place to start as any. Lugging a lot of gear on the bus wasn’t what I’d had in mind, so I limited myself to one lens – my 50mm macro lens. Since it was a nice sunny day, I didn’t have to worry too much about shutter speed, meaning I could set a low f-stop, have a large aperture opening with a shallow depth of field. Macro photography fascinates me and I was hoping some close-up flower shots to get my creative juices flowing.

And it helped. A little.

The shrub I was photographing was on a fairly steep little hill, making it difficult to get some of the angles I wanted to get. After a few shots, it was time to move on.

The High Level Bridge usually provides a lot of opportunities, making it my next stop. I decided to try playing around with my shutter speed, going for motion blur shots of the vehicles on the bridge. Again, it provided a short burst.

The final stop was along a the south side of the Legislature. The sun was shining through the branches of a tall tree, and I was suddenly determined to get a shot of the shun through the branches. After a few attempts, and not a few large spots in my vision! I was satisfied with my excursion.

The real test came later, when it was time to look over my pictures on the computer. I was shocked. Despite not really feeling it that day, I was happy with most of the results. I’ve already shared one of the flower shots and I’m working on posts for rest of the pictures.

Guess I succeeded in ‘faking it till I made it’. And I guess those photography sites know what they’re talking about 😉